The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will include climate resilient debt clauses (CRDC) in new loan agreements with sovereign, sovereign-guaranteed and municipal clients from lower-middle-income countries where it works, EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso announced today at COP28, the global climate summit in Dubai. 

The EBRD’s CRDC will enable the deferral of repayment of loan principal for two years in the event of occurrence of an extreme climate-related or natural disaster, covering floods, droughts and earthquakes, the scale of which necessitates declaration of a state of emergency by the affected country. Eligible clients are expected to be able to start opting for the clause in their loan agreements by around mid-2024.   

CRDCs are primarily a short-term liquidity support tool which could provide borrowers with a fiscal “breathing space” at the time of a severe climate-induced or natural disaster, allowing them to repurpose financial resources from debt servicing to immediate response and recovery needs, and addressing the loss and damage from the impacts of climate change and natural hazards.    

The EBRD made its announcement along with other multilateral development banks – the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the World Bank – at a COP28 event on climate resilient debt clauses.  

The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events worldwide in recent years has given added prominence to work on both climate adaptation and emergency responses to such events.  

The EBRD, a leader in climate finance in central and eastern Europe, Central Asia and the southern and eastern Mediterranean, has aligned all its activities with the goals of the Paris Agreement and has committed to make at least half its investment volumes green by 2025, a goal it has met for the past two years. 

Source: EBRD News

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Amulti-stakeholder regional dialogue among governmental bodies, civil society organizations, academics, and private sector with the aim to collaboratively identify and scale up innovative, sustainable pasture management practices and strategies in Central Asia, thereby contributing to the 3 Rio Conventions, notably UNCCD’s overarching goals of land degradation neutrality.

Central Asia is particularly susceptible to drought, land degradation and desertification due to its arid climate, limited water resources and fragile vegetation cover. Overgrazing, deforestation, changes in land use and improper irrigation methods have led to soil erosion, reduced soil fertility, and the depletion of groundwater resources. Land degradation in Central Asia has multifaceted socio-economic and environmental impacts, affecting livelihoods, food security and ecosystem resilience and unsustainable practices such as overgrazing exacerbate soil erosion and land degradation overall. In economic terms, land degradation costs in Central Asia span from 3% to 11% of GDP with the cost of inaction being five times higher than the cost of action.

This Side Event proposes a constructive, multi-stakeholder dialogue focused on sharing good practice from GEF projects in Central Asia such as the GEF7 Sustainable Forest Management Impact Program on Dryland Sustainable Landscapes (DSL-IP), Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR), and Central Asian Initiative for Land Management-2 (CACILM-2).

By facilitating this collaborative effort, the Side Event aims to fill knowledge gaps, catalyse innovations, promote cross-learning,     collaboration and South-South exchange, and accelerate joint actions toward sustainable pasture management in Central Asia, in alignment with UNCCD objectives, and the above-mentioned initiatives.

Learning outcomes:

• Gain an understanding of the role of pastures from an ecological, economical, and social perspective.
• Identify policy gaps, conflicting interests, and administrative hurdles that impede sustainable pasture management.
• Discuss legislative frameworks, incentives, and governance structures that facilitate sustainable pasture management, including gender mainstreaming-related policies.
• Discuss existing public and private financing mechanisms and how they can be tailored for sustainable pasture initiatives.

Source: IUCN News

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